Valemount – Mt. Robson – Purden Lake

May 18, 2014

From Wells Gray we drove north to the town of Valemount which is close to the entrance of Mount Robson Provincial Park. It’s a very small town with few amenities and many of the buildings have ‘For Sale’ or ‘For Rent’ signs in the windows. It’s too bad as the setting is amazingly beautiful with snow-capped mountains all around.

We’re staying at a rustic but very nice campground just outside of town called Canoe River Campground. It’s actually quite huge but pretty empty this time of year. It seems to cater to ATV’ers and there’s even a truck with snowmobiles on it. The park has a rodeo ground at one end and we camped facing the meadow with lots of horses grazing on it and beautiful mountains in the background.

Canoe River Campground

View at Valemount

What A View!

A visitor to our campsite!

We’re hunkered down for a few days as the weather has turned cloudy and rainy.  We’d hoped to drive up to Mt. Robson which is only about 20 miles away … but with the clouds so low I’m not sure you’d see anything.  We’ll stay here one more night … then push on towards Prince George.

We’re getting lots of cleaning and re-organizing done and writing some articles when we can.  Wi-fi sucks tho so don’t know when we’ll get stuff published.

May 19, 2014

On to Prince George

We left Canoe River Campground at Valemount early to try and get some propane for our little tank … easier said than done on a holiday!  We finally found some at a campground up the road and filled up. 

The morning was very cloudy – socked in – so wasn’t sure about a side trip into Mt. Robson park but we decided to head that way anyway.  Got into the park just ahead of loads of busses and other RV’s – stopped and had a coffee and really good muffin at the park coffee shop/restaurant.  The weather still wasn’t cooperating, couldn’t see the tops of any of the mountains so we turned around and headed back.

Mount Robson Park

All we could see of Mount Robson

We drove about 200 km to Purden Lake Provincial Park.  Thought we’d give it a try as we figured most people who’d be there on a long weekend would be gone – and we were right. 

Purden Lake

Purden Lake Campground

Quite a large lake – about 30 +/- wooded campsites.  Boat Launch, beach and picnic areas.  We’ve decided to stay here 2 nites as the weather shouldn’t be too bad and we’ll try to get the boats in the water tomorrow.  Think we’ll make enchiladas tonight for supper … will have to fire up the gennie  to cook the chicken. 

A beautiful visitor has come around to mooch some peanuts – Stellar’s Jay

After this site we’ll head to Prince George and hopefully spend a day or 2 there … pick up Bruce’s camera (that got left behind in Victoria and his dad had to ship it out!) and see where we’ll go next!

May 20, 2014

I did make chicken enchiladas last night but no help from the gennie!  As it turns out we’re at ¼ tank of gas and the gennie won’t run when it’s down to that level.  No worries … I just poached the chicken and it was fine.  Added a can of pinto beans and some chopped green chillies … some onion and then enchilada sauce and cheese on top.  They were actually amazingly good! Check out our recipe:  Enchiladas You Can Do

Were here at Purden Lake Provincial Park for the 2nd day.  It rained last night but we were snug in bed watching a movie!  The solar panels and new batteries are proving to be well worth the cost.  We ran the TV with no appreciable usage of battery drainage!

Today we got the kayaks out and went for a paddle around the bottom of the lake.  Very pretty and now that the long weekend is over – deserted! I guess the park was full and we timed it just right.

Kayaking on Purden Lake

Kayaking Purden Lake

We’ll head out to Prince George in the morning with hopes of picking up the camera, getting some grocs (finding a Costco!) and maybe some museum stuff.  There’s a campground right at the edge of town that looks good and maybe we can bike from there.

May 21, 2014

Reached Prince George today.  Quite rainy so a good day to do all our shopping for groceries and bits and pieces for RV.  We’re camped at Blue Cedar RV park right in Prince George.  Think we’ll just chill out now and get some internet stuff done.